Office 2003 SP2 available for download

Allister reminded me that I hadn’t blogged about Office SP2 yet. Do I need to Allister, when everyone who reads my blog is probably already a fan of yours 😉

So what will you get with SP2? Here’s what it says on the download link. Service Pack 2 provides updates that address top customer experience issues, as well as support for upgraded applications, security improvements, and significant stability and performance improvements for Office client applications as well as servers Office programs and servers. Among the enhancements customers will experience when they download and install the SP2 are:· Improved Security – SP2 includes an enhancement to Outlook to help prevent “Phishing.” Outlook has also improved the handling of “Junk” email. Junk messages are now rendered as plain text, preventing HTML information from being viewed inadvertently. Links are also now disabled in “Junk” email messages with SP2.
· Improved application stability – SP2 includes numerous fixes and enhancements for Office applications and servers based on customer and partner feedback as well as extensive internal testing.
· Support for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 – Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 have been updated to include support for the upcoming releases of SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005.

So I downloaded it (it took ages and ages over a 1/2 mb link by the way – just to let you know) but it chugged along in the background and didn’t interrupt or freeze this slow old machine up at all – so don’t worry. It’s a big download… Click on the “Check for updates” link here.

So what did I notice? Well just have a look in your junk mail folder after you’ve installed SP2. The Junk E-mail Filter evaluates all messages to see if it might be suspicious, potentially fraudulent, or part of a “phishing” scheme. Messages that are moved to the Junk E-mail folder have their links disabled and message format converted to Plain Text format. Any message that you move out of the Junk E-mail folder will have its links enabled and the original message format restored, unless the message is considered by the Junk E-mail Filter to contain suspicious links. In that case, even if you move it out of the Junk E-mail folder, the links it contains will remain disabled by default. now thats a heck of a neat trick, Outlook remembering message format and links etc. Very smart idea…..